Topic: Minicomputer

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In the News (Wed 19 Dec 18)

Minicomputer (colloquially, mini) is a largely obsolete term for a class of multi-user computers which make up the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems (traditionally, mainframecomputers) and the smallest single-user systems (microcomputers or personal computers).

Typically, minicomputers have been stand-alone computers (computer systems with attached terminals and other devices) sold to small and mid-size businesses for general business applications and to large enterprises for department-level operations.

In recent years, the minicomputer has evolved into the "mid-range server" and is part of a network.

The semiconductor manufacturers, who made the minicomputer industry possible in the first place by supplying ever more powerful and less costly circuit components, are launching their own powerful microprocessors and single-board microcomputers.

A decade ago the minicomputer companies were the brash challengers, offering smaller, cheaper, albeit less powerful, products than the established mainframe manufacturers, and they succeeded in carving out a significant share of the hotly competitive market.

Data General, a pioneer among minicomputer companies in chip manufacturing, is in the process of tripling the size of its six-year-old semiconductor plant in Sunnyvale, Calif. An in-house ability to produce customized microprocessors is essential for gaining a "competitive edge" in microcomputers, stresses Jeffrey C. Kalb, vice-president and plant manager.

When a large number of user terminals are connected to TIP's through telecommunications facilities, whether within a single organization or, even more likely, when users and user groups not needing the full TIP capability are connected to a remote TIP, this problem may arise.

For terminals containing a substantial amount of logic, including possibly a minicomputer, a human user is very likely not in the direct terminal-TIP communications loop.

An interesting potential application of the network is to provide support for minicomputers used for process control and other laboratory measurement functions.

Minicomputers were characterised by short word lengths of 8 to 32 bits, limited hardware and software facilities and small physical size.

In recent years, improvements in device technology have resulted in minicomputers which are comparable in performance to large second generation computers and greatly exceed the performance of first generation computers.

DEC's PDP-1 was the first minicomputer and their PDP-11 was the most successful, closely followed (in both time and success) by the VAX (which DEC called a "super minicomputer").

This class is distinguished from the class of Data Entry Operator III by its operation and maintenance of minicomputer and peripheral equipment in addition to entering data; whereas positions in the Data Entry Operator III class mainly key data for entry.

Turns on, sets up and monitors the operation of a minicomputer; mounts and dismounts tapes and disk packs; checks tapes and disks for obvious defects that could cause processing problems.

Trace problems in a minicomputer and peripheral equipment to source and correct according to procedures; explain problems not covered by procedures to professional staff and then correct per instructions.

And, being experienced, successful (in the minicomputer world) professionals, they are utterly convinced that the ways of doing business in the minicomputer world are the laws of the natural universe.

A personal computer company under minicomputer type management recently released a new personal computer which was supported by an electronic spread sheet (which existed), a text editor (which did not exist) and an emulation mode (which mostly didn't work) for an earlier, successful personal computer.

Since the silicon fabricators are constantly providing the minicomputer boys with bigger, better and cheaper tools, minicomputer organizations can ALWAYS come out with a new model that is better than their competitor's last years' model.

The minicomputer evolved from a conceptual view of design wherein a programmable controller was perceived to be the cheapest, fastest way to implement a special-purpose function.

The minicomputer did not require the generality of larger computers and hence required less software and less overhead.

From these origins, where the minicomputer was considered to be the minimal-complexity computer, the minicomputer has grown in functionality and performance to the point where it rivals the higher-cost, general-purpose computers of a decade ago.

But a special kind of minicomputer acts as a graphics/engineering workstation instead: it’s used to produce graphics that are extra big, extra high-quality, and extra fast, for beautiful artwork, Hollywood special effects, ads, magazines, and “artist renderings” of creations by architects and engineers.

Companies who make “maxicomputers” and “minicomputers” feel nervous about using those terms, which are less modern and less cool than “microcomputers”, so they typically advertise their computers as being “powerful servers” instead.

and the remaining 2% are weird (maxicomputers, minicomputers, wild ducks).

www.gis.net /~poo/27buyer.html (6517 words)

Computers: The 70s(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)

After a year of rumors -- and a sell-off of minicomputer stocks by nervous investors -- IBM finally unveiled its "Peachtree" system, its code name for its first venture into the world of minicomputers.

But to many minicomputer industry analysts and executives, the announcement seemed to be a "good news, bad news" situation.

The bad news was that the new IBM machine is a threat to most of the larger minicomputer makers.

The problems are discussed of selecting and implementing a minicomputer system, with particular reference to the key stages in the various decision making processes involved.

Following a brief description of a typical minicomputer, the range and purpose of the various system inputs and outputs is presented.

This leads to discusson of: the function of the system; the type of equipment required to implement that function; the class of minicomputer suited to that requirement; the type of system which should be purchased-i.e.

This second, revised and updated edition of Minicomputer Systems: Organization, Programming, and Applications was written for a diverse group of readers, including systems programmers, systems designers, computer scientists, electrical engineers, applications specialists, and many others who want a full, working knowledge of computer organization and assembly language programming.

Such advancement in understanding is the direct product of twelve detailed and easy-to-follow chapters that are unified by the use of FORTRAN for algorithm definition and the PDP-11 minicomputer for assembly language examples and illustrations.

Minicomputer Systems opens with a general introduction to computer applications, capabilities, limitations, organization, architecture, and implementation.

The prior review found that minicomputer conversion risks continued to be high because one-third of the systems missed the target date, milestone dates were changed, and conversion delays were evident weeks before they were reported.

In our earlier report, we identified that minicomputer risk remains high because one-third of the minicomputer systems were not converted by the January 31, 1999, target date.

However, oversight of the minicomputer conversion efforts remains critical to ensure that all systems are converted timely and that contingency plans are made ready as the Year 2000 approaches.

From an architectural point of view, the characteristic which most distinguishes many of these systems from larger mainframecomputers is the size of the virtual address space: the immediately available address space seen by an individual process.

Minicomputer Associates specialities are client/server systems, where Minicomputer Associates develops both the client and the server.

Client side applications are typically written in Microsoft Visual Basic, supplemented with high performance Active/X controls or Dynamic Link Libraries written in C. Server side applications may also be written in Microsoft Visual Basic or may be built on proprietary database systems such as Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle.

In the case where no specification is available, Minicomputer Associates Limited will undertake a period of consultancy work leading to the writing of a specification and the supply of a quotation to implement the specification at a fixed price.